East Central Europe:The Former Yugoslavia

A case study in political and cultural geography

Brief History• End of WWI many boundaries

redrawn.

• Yugoslavia home of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

• Serbs took charge - caused tensions with other groups

• After WWII Tito took strong control-communism not compatible with nationalism of groups

• Set up six republics & two autonomous regions

• Tito died in 1980 - nationalism re-emerged.

Brief History

KosovoMonte-Negro

Nationalist Groups

• Slovenes & Croats - in north, Roman Catholic. Use the Roman alphabet

• Serbs & Macedonians - in south are Eastern Orthodox. Use the cyrillic alphabet

• Bosnians - in centre are Muslim and Eastern Orthodox

• Albanian - Muslim,in south. Separate state from Yugoslavia, but large numbers of ethnic group in southern Yugoslavia

After Tito’s death in 1980

• Slovenes and Croats, in the north,felt dominated by Serbs. Declared independence in 1991.

• Macedonia, in the south, making plans for secession

• Bosnia-Herzegovina in centre most ethnically varied yet dominated by Serbs

• Bosnian government supported Serbs; Serbs afraid Bosnia would become Muslim state; Muslims remain loyal to government.

• UN peacekeepers still remain

• Macedonia declared independence in 1992.• Within the state of Yugoslavia, Serbs were becoming uneasy with Muslims,

Croats and Albanian nationals, many had higher birth rates and were economically dependent

• Slobodan Milosevic power started war against Albanian nationals in the sw Yugoslavian province of Kosovo.

• Kosovo was site of important religious sites in Eastern Orthodox religion.

Kosovo

• Milosevic attacked Albanians

• NATO intervened and bombed Kosovo

• Milosevic arrested and charged with crimes against humanity

• “Ethnic Cleansing” of Muslims in order to eradicate other nationals from state:– assimilation, expulsion and extermination– Rape as a war crime